George Michael Jackson and STRGPXI
Beginning in 2011 as the covers band George Michael Jackson, the STRGPXI (or South Taita Reserve Grade Presidents XI) were the originals rock band that grew out from the former. Consisting of RockLord Kerry Logan (guitar), the Gypsys' Neil Hearn (bass), and introducing David Moore (drums), Aaron Curtis (vocals), and later Pete Wikstrom (guitar), the band possessed a straight rock sound that was heavily guitar driven, with colourful vocal work showing off a raw, but fun style. The idea for George Michael Jackson came to Kerry while in England in 2003 and became a covers band during the last quarter of 2011. Bringing in Neil, Aaron, and David, along with Jon Screech (keyboard) and Mike Moore (guitar), the band played two live slots in 2011 and early 2012. In 2013, the group reformed without Jon and Mike for a short Battle of the Bands appearance in Lower Hutt under the new name, the South Taita Reserve Grade Presidents XI, before reforming properly to write, rehearse, and live-record their debut album, STRGPXI+KL. With the album release, they became the RockLords' 12th official band. History George Michael Jackson (2011-2012) During 2003, Shift member Kerry Logan took six months off from the RockLords ''band to head over to England with his wife for a six month period. While over there, he worked as a gardener on an estate in Warwickshire, and during the long summer days, would think of different musical ideas and projects, many of which became the building blocks of the ''RockLords today. One of those ideas was forming a covers band based on the works of George Michael, Wham!, Michael Jackson, ''and the Jackson 5'', the idea being aptly named George Michael Jackson. Fast forward to 2011 and Kerry was in the last term of teachers college. After completing the year of study, he knew that he would have a few months where the workload was light before joining a school in the next year, so decided it would be a good idea to form a short-term band as a way of having some fun. Recalling the George Michael Jackson idea, he approached some of his close friends from his church connections in Lower Hutt about the idea, and it quickly grew into a band. Initially Kerry linked up with drummer David Moore (who had flatted with Kerry's wife Jo when they had first met) and young singer Aaron Curtis as he did a lot of Star Wars boardgaming with the pair. Bassist Neil Hearn was a quick addition due to his competency with the bass, and given that Kerry had played with him a lot at Knox Church and also previously in the Gypsys. The four then approached Kerry's brother-in-law Jon Screech, formerly of Progressive Jon fame, as he was looking to play more keyboard (he is an excellent guitarist), and the group knew they would need a keyboard for the right sound. Jon accepted and the five began practicing at Knox Church on November 1st. The premise of the group was that they would always play one Michael Jackson track for every George Michael '' track. While Kerry knew ''George Michael ''and Wham!'' really well, the other members of the group didn't know them that well, meaning the early discussions were very Michael Jackson-driven. As the practices and discussions on the GMJ Facebook page began in earnest, the appreciation for Wham! gave the two sides of the covers project equal parity and the spirit of GMJ was able to progress fully. Meeting almost every Tuesday night for November and December of 2011, the group began to amass a decent repertoire of tracks, so they began to discuss how they were going to perform the material. It became quickly apparent that finding an official venue to play at when they were an unknown group was going to be problematic. The decision had been made very early on that Kerry only intended the band to last for three months, so there was a general unwillingness to try push themselves too far in terms of promotion. They were simply looking for a place to setup and play. They discussed doing a one-off show at Knox Church, but after some discussion, it was Kerry's wife Jo that suggested that they simply throw up a marque and perform in their backyard as a sort of neighbourhood party with all the band's families invited. The band agreed and preparations began on the afternoon concert. Thursday, the 29th of December, the day arrived for the neighbourhood concert. The band arrived with a mass of equipment and began putting up a small marque with no walls. The weather was looking very downcast and the group and their wives began contemplating removing all of the furniture from the Logan family's lounge in order to do an indoor concert (which, given that the house was a small state house would have made for a very cosy environment), but a late call was made to brave the elements, take their chances and set up outside. All proceeded without a hitch, and the only full performance of George Michael Jackson went off flawlessly, with several people including families, friends, and neighbours all gathered at the Logan house for the concert. The families gathered had brought blankets, chairs, and their dinners (a lot of fish and chips) and the loud community event was a great success. In March of the next year, the local Taita Community in Lower Hutt was again having their Tumeke Taita festival, and as Kerry's wife Jo was a part of the organising committee, the band were asked to perform a couple of numbers for the concert part of the festival. On March 17, 2012 (Kerry's birthday), the GMJ group performed Club Tropicana and Blame It On The Boogie ''in front of a modest crowd. The South Taita Reserve Grade Presidents XI: Reforming for the Battle of the Bands (2013) Always looking for opportunities to perform, Kerry Logan happened on an advert for the 2013 Lower Hutt Battle of the Bands being performed at the Angus Inn. The problem, however, was that the competition was almost at its final sign-in date and as of yet, Kerry had not organised a band or a set of songs to play. Kerry quickly sent in an entry, naming the band the South Taita Reserve Grade Presidents XI and quickly throwing several names on the form in order to get it in on time. Once in the competition, Kerry then had to get the band. He had written down the names of the members of ''GMJ, and Neil, Aaron, and David all agreed to play, with Jon declining to be involved further as he was not interested in pushing his funk-keyboarding skills any further. The band name came from a name that Kerry had been kicking around for some time, and was also the name of the Facebook social group that some of Kerry and his friends had been involved in to arrange social events. Kerry quickly threw together a set of songs that were from the RockLords' catalog and emailed them around for the band members to learn. The week of the heat that the band was to be playing in rolled around and the band were still yet to have their first practice. Meeting at Knox Church on the Wednesday before the gig, they had a run through of the set, and then arranged to meet again at Knox on the Friday (in two days' time) to run over the set briefly before the gig itself. The songs that they quickly threw together for the night were a hodge-podge of Kerry's own tracks, and wider RockLords' songs. They were: * The Princess/The End Comes (Kerry Logan) * My Lobotomy (Shift) * Roboto Destroys the World (Gypsys) * possibly Pruvit (Kerry Logan) and maybe one other. The band arrived at the Angus Inn around 10pm and waited for their turn to set up and perform. Acts were given just 30 minutes to set up, perform, and pack down, so all the timing of the set needed to fit within those constraints. Aaron had brought some of his cricket gear along so that the band could wear it. Dave's wife Kirsty was along to provide much needed support. The time arrived (11:30, I believe) and the band played their set in their first ever performance, only having first formed together for a practice just two days before. Sandwiched between a tight metal act and a polished reggae band, that seemed to have everybody in attendance as support, the band had little chance of finishing in the top 2 to make the next round, but managed a credible performance with the judges awarding them the best vocals for the night (Aaron and Kerry). The band was never expecting to progress so the event was a great success. STRGPXI+KL (2015) The South Taita Reserve Grade Presidents XI was such a fun moment for the former GMJ foursome that they long considered doing it again. While it took two years to progress the idea further, in August of 2015 the group reformed as STRGPXI to begin on a new project. Much like their first incarnation which had been brought about by Kerry looking to finish off 2011 with a bang, this was based around the same idea: Kerry looking to finish of 2015 with a bang. The additional focus of the group, however, was more practical, in that they were looking to use the opportunity to live-record some of Kerry's songs that he was looking to use as an album project. The band that came together in the start of August of 2015 was Kerry Logan (guitar), Neil Hearn (bass), David Moore (drums), Aaron Curtis (vocals), and the was to introduce Pete Wikstrom (lead guitar). Pete had been friends with Kerry for a couple of years and they shared a love of rock music (Pete being a touch more metal) and Pete was an accomplished guitarist so Kerry invited him to be a part of the band. Starting on the 4th of August and progressing right through until the 24th of December, the band met almost every Tuesday to learn, rehearse, record, and sometimes even write the material for the album. Using Kerry's Tascam digital recorder, the band were able to capture a good enough recording to complete the short seven track album (which also included six more bonus tracks). The material was largely songs penned by Kerry (or co-written), but featured a few covers, a recording of the Shift classic My Lobotomy, and a few jam sessions, one (Gizzahoon) which was such a good first take, with a few minor cuts actually sounded like a proper song. By the end of December the band had enough material for the album with a few solos left to record. Pete was keen to get the best take he could for the solos, and Kerry wanted to get the mix right so they chose to record some of the guitar solos separately (alongside of a solo Pete was doing for Kerry's Collabor8 album). Pete began to loose feeling in his arm, a recurring problem he had been trying work through for several years, and it came back, delaying the recording of the solos until the 13th of January. Three days later, on the 16th of January, STRGPXI+KL ''was released on therocklords.bandcamp.com. Kerry at this stage had accepted a job for one year in Taranaki and left in January 2016, while Pete's arm declined over the year. In 2017, Kerry returned, but Aaron moved to England to play cricket. The group is currently not active, but if Pete's arm recovers and Aaron returns, the band are interested in a second album, and maybe even some live performances. Live: Beyond the RockLords Universe The three distinct eras of the band all bear out in different ways when addressing the question of live performances. ''GMJ was governed by the nature of the act and the music that they played. The group were fully given to tribute the music, but gave little thought to the performance especially, trying to faithfully handle the classic tunes in their own way. Their first performance was in a marquee at the back of a corner property in Lower Hutt, while their second and final show was on the back of a truck at a local festival just up the road from their first performance. If they had been interested in persisting with their craft, they would have undoubtedly honed their on-stage act to match what they were presenting musically, although the intention of the band was only the first show, the second coming as somewhat a surprise. Certainly, if they did continue on, Aaron's vibrant presence on stage would have been a central point to the band's live ambitions. The South Taita Reserve Grade Presidents XI were a different beast in that they were formed a handful of days prior to their only live performance and it was just for that live performance, so it is difficult to comment on their only offering. They were hardly polished enough to bring anything other than the raw efforts of the four members, although it must be said that Aaron's ability as a frontman is excellent and was already evident in the show. The band too looked to bring their humour into their presentation by the wearing of cricket gear. This was a half-hearted attempt to manipulate their stage presence, but it points to a potential that was ultimately never explored. STRGPXI, the third incarnation of the group, never played live, but if they had would have ultimately been a continuation of the above. Much like NinjaVision, it is difficult to know at all where the band could have gone and we are only left to wonder. Stylemaster: Musical Style STRGPXI were only going to ever mostly be four-on-the-floor rock, but the pull of the GMJ ''days coupled with the more metal guitar influence of Pete nestled the group into a unique centre. The style of the tracks were largely governed by them being predominantly Kerry's pre-written works, and therefore intended to sit within that style, but the flavour of the band - the relentless power of Dave's drums, the funk of Neil's bass, the rawness of Aaron's voice - would always shape that. ''How Long? was intended as pop-punk, while the brutal Dear Diary was a call back to Kerry's grunge days. Love My Brother was a mock-rock song lamenting being passed over by others for an older brother, and was intended as pure comedy. Justin William's Do I Have To Say Goodbye? ''was stolen by Kerry to be melded into a Black Sabbath-esque track, and ''The Setting Sun was a pop-rock number which the band managed to give it a live Kerry never fully expected from the track. The place where we see the heart of STRGPXI is the improvised Gizzahoon, a track that was performed on the fly during one of the band's sessions. Coming from a Kerry-riff, the band quickly picked it up and ran with it, while Aaron's gravelly made-up-on-the-spot vocal is perfect for the track. With a little cutting in places, the 6-minute song was shave to a reasonably polished 4-minute affair, and showcases the most honest rendering of the group. If the band ever do reassemble for a second album, they have already discussed heading in a direction more akin to the style of Gizzahoon, and write more together. Legacy: How They Will Be Remembered Although they did nothing to set the world on fire - or even partial smolder - GMJ ''are often well remembered by those that saw them perform in late 2011. The coolness of the music and the idea to squeeze so much of it together was a powerful combination, and the band played up to the idea well. If the group were ever to be reformed with a similar intention - it would need to be geared towards a live performance, keep in mind - the prospect of another run at the concept would be well supported by band and patrons alike. The ''STRGPXI album was a moment in time for the group and, unless they return for a second album, might not register much more than with the band and their immediate supporters. The album, however, did three key things. First, it brought out the singer in Aaron Curtis from behind the frontman. As a natural clown, he was always going to be able to prance around on a stage, but losing the performance aspect as the album did, gave Aaron the chance to concentrate on his vocal work, something that is evident in Dear Diary, where Aaron's vocal in incredible. Second, it brought the GMJ members back together (albeit with some slight changes) and gave them a new lease of life, as well as a pretty dam good excuse to meet each week and rock out. Pete's addition was pure fun as his metal leads were a joy to watch and sound magical on the album. Thirdly, it was a great example of being able to live record an album, a concept that the wider RockLords group have only tried either with the improvisational Gypsys, or in a professional recording studio. Practicing a number of songs with the express purpose of laying down the foundation of an album is a new concept for the band which may yet be revisited. It certainly was good enough for these tracks, and their quality stands well up against other RockLords ''recordings. Origins: The Meanings The name ''South Taita Reserve Grade Presidents XI was a name that Kerry had been kicking around for some time. He had seen a poster some fifteen years earlier that referenced a band of a similar name and when he moved into Taita, Lower Hutt, in 2006, the name slowly formed. Not long after moving into Taita, Kerry and a group of friends formed a sort of social group, communicating largely on Facebook, to which Kerry used this name for the group. When the band adopted the name, they eventually shorted it to the acronym of STRGPXI. The album STRGPXI+KL simply adds 'plus Kerry Logan' onto it, as a reference to the album content being both the bands and Kerry's in terms of his recording efforts. GMJ, or George Michael Jackson, came from adding George Michael (from Wham) and Michael Jackson (from the Jackson 5) together. Easy, huh. There's very little cryptic beyond the band name with regards to the origins of names for the group, with the exception of the song title for the second track on the album, Gizzahoon. The band recorded the track impromptu over about 5-6 minutes (the final recording being a slight mix and cut down to just under 4 minutes) and in the discussion about the track afterwards, the name "gizzahoon" was chosen, referencing a colloquial way of saying 'oh, give us a hoon (a go)?' - or 'gizzahoon?'. Band Members Current Band Members * Kerry Logan: guitar (2013-2015) * Aaron Curtis: vocals (2013-2015) * David Moore: drums (2013-2015) * Neil Hearn: bass (2013-2015) * Pete Wikstrom: lead guitar (2015) George Michael Jackson * Kerry Logan: guitar and vocals (2011-2012) * Aaron Curtis: vocals (2011-2012) * David Moore: drums (2011-2012) * Neil Hearn: bass (2011-2012) * Jon Screech: keyboards (2011-2012) * Mike Moore: acoustic guitar (2011) Discography STRGPXI Albums: * STRGPXI+KL (2016) Key Dates 2011 * Tuesday, 1st November: The GMJ guys meet at Knox Church to practice for the first time. Up until the gig they will practice most Tuesdays. * Thursday, 29 December: George Michael Jackson play their 16-song set at the Logan's house in Taita, Lower Hutt. 2012 * Saturday, 17 March: George Michael Jackson play two songs at the Tumeke Taita Summer Festival in Taita, Lower Hutt. 2013 * Wednesday, 31 July: Kerry, Aaron, David, and Neil meet at Knox church for their first practice for Friday's Battle of the Bands. * Friday, 2nd August: The South Taita Reserve Grade Presidents XI play the heat at the Angus Inn, Lower Hutt. They don't make it to the Semi-Finals. 2015 * Saturday, 21st March: Kerry has a 40th birthday party. Kerry, Bob, Pete, and Neil jam together, albeit at different times. Aaron, Dave, Mike, and Jon are also there. * Tuesday, 4th August: STRGPXI meets at Knox Church for their first practice. * Recording sessions for STRGPXI........ * Thursday, 24th December: STRGPXI meet to practice, play, and record at Knox Church for the last time. 2016 * Wednesday, 13 January: Pete's arm is well enough to record the solo overdubs for the album. * Saturday, 16 January: The debut album STRGPXI+KL is released at therocklords.bandcamp.com. Distant Future: What Comes Next? George Michael Jackson, ''the ''South Taita Reserve Grade Presidents XI and STRGPXI all share some things in common: they largely consist of the same group of musicians, and they were put together by Kerry as he had the urge to work on a short term musical project. STRGPXI, and their precursor bands, were perhaps not supposed to be longer term bands. Having said that, there is considerable interest in a follow-up album. The members of the band enjoyed the album project that they are very keen on a working on more material. Two things stand in the way of the sophomore album. The first is purely geographical, as Kerry moved away from Lower Hutt to teach at Opunake High School in Taranaki. While it is a short term contract, the obvious distance issues prohibit the weekly practice style of the group. As the group waits for Kerry's eventual return, it allows Pete to work on his arm. Pete's mysterious injury, while held at bay for the duration of the initial STRGPXI project, has come back in full force, meaning the lead guitarist would have issues sustaining himself across another project. It is the fervent wish of just about everyone that both things resolve themselves. While the discussions about a second album have been limited, they have still happened and the general consensus us that, unlike the first album which largely consists of Kerry-written songs from his early songwriting days, the next one would be a more collaborative effort. Gizzahoon, the somewhat improvised track from the album, is perhaps a pointer towards what a second STRGPXI album would look like. Whatever it looked like, it would probably be 'more metal'. Links and Such * STRGPXI+KL (album)